Inferring Your Mobile Phone Password via WiFi Signals - <AUTHOR> http://fermatslibrary.com/s/when-csi-meets-public-wifi-inferring-your-mobile-phone-password-via-wifi-signals <comment><USER2> For those who want more information on CSI (Channel State Information):

[http://dhalperi.github.io/linux-80211n-csitool/](http://dhalperi.github.io/linux-80211n-csitool/)

This allows you to use a custom firmware developed for the Intel 5300 wireless adapter and read the CSI values with each packet.

Every 802.11n implementation that I am aware of keeps a CSI vector (IQ values, typically as integers) within the wifi chip. Both the Wifi AP and STA do this. The CSI vector is updated with every packet, using the training data at the beginning of the packet. (802.11 is CSMA [2] so there is a fixed transmission to start the packet)

In other words, Intel has this nice tool for one of their (now somewhat dated) chips. But CSI is not restricted to Intel chips. Atheros chips have a decent but limited CSI readback method, not quite as nice as Intel's [3]. But CSI has been used for experiments on all major wifi chips out there.

With 802.11n this is used to determine the quality of signal likely to be received on each sub-carrier within the signal.

CSI is useful for many other things: RF experiments, indoor position sensing, and now apparently also password cracking.

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_sense_multiple_access_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_sense_multiple_access_with_collision_avoidance)

[3] [http://pdcc.ntu.edu.sg/wands/Atheros/](http://pdcc.ntu.edu.sg/wands/Atheros/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Holy shit. From a brief scan it looks like the paper concentrates on recovering a numeric pin, but these attacks never get worse, only better, so I assume full keyboard access is not too far off. What's the defense? Have your phone manage the passwords and unlock via fingerprint?

<comment><USER4> Or scramble the numeric keypad on every try, but that would get annoying fast.

<comment><USER5> My bank did that with a JavaScript number pad. They went back to a standard password field with the new design of the site a couple of years ago. That made me feel less safe because I understood why the were complicating the input.

Another strategy I've seen is to ask some random digits of a longer PIN, with a mask to fill out.

<comment><USER6> Some banks (e.g. Barclays) use a card reader that generates a unique key each time. Since this also requires that you have your card to log in, it's my understanding that this offers massively improved security.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This paper is available through Google scholar if you search for "CCS 16 password WiFi" or click here: [https://www.a51.nl/sites/default/files/pdf/p1068-li.pdf](https://www.a51.nl/sites/default/files/pdf/p1068-li.pdf)

I've been a part of a similar paper that detected exact keystrokes. This one seems to build on a similar idea. The thing to keep in mind is that these systems need user and environment specific training. That is if the user is changed or the user or something in the environment moves, the system needs to retrain.

</comment><comment><USER8> Direct link to PDF without the (infuriating) popups/overlays: [http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2980000/2978397/p1068-li.pdf](http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2980000/2978397/p1068-li.pdf)

<comment><USER9> popped by the comments just to find something like this (but the link doesnt work)! thanks anyway!

<comment><USER10> Here is the ACM link: [http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2978397](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2978397)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> See also: detecting and motion tracking people behind walls, with the ability to recognise specific people ( also using wifi ).

[http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/28/9625636/rf-capture-mit- wi...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/28/9625636/rf-capture-mit-wifi- tracking-surveillance-technology)

Of particular interest: It can determine breathing patterns and heart rate.

<comment><USER12> Or the 2013 discussion of _Wi-Fi signals enable gesture recognition throughout entire home_ here on Hacker News with links to other related ideas in the comments.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5824286](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5824286)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Some weeks back I read a post here about detecting people in rooms by measuring how the physical body interferes with the wifi signals. I wouldn't have imagined someone could extract useful information at this small of a scale. wow!

<comment><USER11> This one!

[http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/28/9625636/rf-capture-mit- wi...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/28/9625636/rf-capture-mit-wifi- tracking-surveillance-technology)

It can detect people and track their movements _behind walls_ , and tell different people apart.

It can also measure breathing patterns and heart rate.

<comment><USER13> I clearly did not read into this enough as it is more impressive than I had remembered. It's quite the eye-opener on how much unique data there is out in the wild...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Read the section "limitations". Only works on 10 users right now, must be trained for the pattern "per user", phone must be sitting on stable surface, gesture must be performed as close to "the same" every time. This is just clickbait and "please fund our research" IMO.

<comment><USER15> What did you expect — a turn-key solution for sale? They claim no such thing.

This is great research. They've demonstrated that it is in fact possible to obtain a passcode at a distance, at least in contrived conditions. The fact it's possible whatsoever is a significant result. Even without being able to obtain the exact passcode, this would yield the ability to guess a passcode in much better time than just random selection.

<comment><USER14> Ok I think my issue with this is that its akin to saying: Given the same users, in the same position, with the same hardware, performing the same gestures, we discovered the signals are consistent enough that a NNet can figure out a pattern. However, if the users, the hardware, the wifi router, the positions, the orientations, the conditions, or the gestures used change, you would need to retrain your NNet for that situation.

After working on a couple of "ambitious" projects that tried to use wifi or bluetooth signals to mine data, it turns out its not super reliable in real- world situations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> LTE and HSDPA (and maybe older gens) have Channel Quality Indicator, which afaik has the same role as CSI. So I wonder if the same trick can be achieved with LTE signalling? To pull that off you would need access to a BTS, but today with open source stacks, like OpenBTS or OpenAirInterface,you could roll out your own.

</comment><comment><USER17> RELATED: "Keystroke Recognition Using WiFi Signals"

[https://www.cse.msu.edu/~alexliu/publications/KamranWiKey/Ka...](https://www.cse.msu.edu/~alexliu/publications/KamranWiKey/KamranWiKey_MOBICOM15.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER18> It looks like they're inferring the right 6-digit password about 20% of the time on their first try, presumably using the Xiaomi phone. But if they can try 20 candidates before getting locked out, they can guess the 6-digit password about 50% of the time.

With the Samsung phone, which has a much lower 1-digit recovery rate, it seems that it would be closer to 6% on the first try, and 20% by the twentieth try.

</comment><comment><USER19> I like this Fermat thing but it would be cooler if it could add a date to the papers who, for some reason, do not have a date.

<comment><USER20> Following DOI: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2976749.2978397](http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2976749.2978397) we find the paper was presented in Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, Vienna, Austria.

Date: 2016-10-24

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Also never enter a password in any location where a hidden video camera could be observing you. Or where a hidden microphone could be listening to your typing. Or where ruffians holding crowbars could be lurking in the next room.

</comment><comment><USER22> Moral of this (and every other) story: Never, ever connect to a free, public wifi.

ETA: This was meant to be glib, given the frequency of such stories seen on HN, and the many children below are quite correctly pointing out that the _real_ moral is [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13645694](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13645694)

<comment><USER23> It would seem that that's not the moral of the story: it looks like your device doesn't even have to connect to the wifi. It appears that this is more like using wifi as radar to detect finger movements.

<comment><USER24> So then its probably a pretty good idea to randomize the number keypad for the lock screen, which I do. Does this defeat that, I can't think of a way it does..

<comment><USER25> The paper focused on an attack against a payment system, not the lock screen, so you'd need to randomize every password input keyboard at the system level.

Probably not a bad idea...

<comment><USER26> Another option would be to use thumbprints for all authorizations after the device is unlocked.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


First State Legalizes Taser Drones for Cops, Thanks to a Lobbyist - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/26/first-state-legalizes-armed-drones-for-cops-thanks-to-a-lobbyist.html

<comment><USER2> While I can't say I'm happy about weaponized drones, at least North Dakota dodged this for the time being:

"[Sheriff] Rost said he needs to use drones for surveillance in order to obtain a warrant in the first place."

The more I read of drones in use for police situations, the more I feel like they simply make it too easy to invade situations that used to be comfortably private. "If you have nothing to hide" is always a horrible argument, and here I feel like it could have horrible consequences too.</comment>


46% Percent of Women Say They Would Give Up Sex for the Internet - <AUTHOR> http://fredstechblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/46-percent-of-women-say-they-would-give.html

<comment><USER2> _46% of women and 30% of men would give up sex for two weeks instead of giving up access to the Internet for the same period._

That's slightly different than the implied, "Sex; Interwebs; choose one!"

A more interesting question would have been, "Given the choice between giving up sex or the Internet in perpetuity, outside of sex engaged in strictly for procreation, which would you choose?"

<comment><USER3> How about, "Given the choice between only having sex for procreation, or only using the Internet for productive activities, which would you choose?"

<comment><USER2> Damn, I could get the whole Internet if I could just pick "have sex for procreation" but procreating would almost certainly be worse than losing the "fun" Internet.

You've created the _impossible question_.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> i'd give up internet for sex ... for an hour

<comment><USER5> Heh, yeah...log off just long enough to have sex, then go back on the internet. As opposed to surfing while you're having sex.</comment></comment>


Sole Survivors: Solo Ventures Versus Founding Teams (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3107898 <comment><USER2> Being single founder is of high risk venture, as anything with high risk it has potential gains as well.

I ran my company successfully as a single founder for 5 years, till one day I was told I would become a quadriplegic & I had to close my company as there's no other executive to take care of it.

I had Facebook Fb Start accelerated product with 2,50,000 customers , any company expressing interest in acquiring my product wanted me to work for them; which wasn't possible as I was recovering from surgery.

Being single founder has it's merit, but when things go south with your health or anything personal; you'll loose your company.

<comment><USER3> OT: I read your story on your personal web page and we have some eerie similarities there. I was a solo founder for 14 years when I sold most of my company (not out of obvious necessity, I had grown tired of it somewhat and a good offer was on the table). During the last few months I had developed some tingling / pressure sensations in my fingers and legs, which I first attributed to bad posture, discs etc.

It turned out that I had a tumor growing in the spinal cavity between C2 and C4 - luckily benign, but still causing stenosis effects and eventually leading to me becoming quadriplegic unless removed. I also had severe Vitamin D and Calcium deficiency (and nothing else) and was discharged after 10 days from hospital when I had surgery. My scar is naturally very similar to yours and I have 20 Titanium screws and 6 plates implanted. My day-to-day challenges are not flexibility issues though, it's chronic pain in the hands and much worse typing skills than before surgery.

Fortunately, I found an obvious successor (the most self-motivated and responsible one, not a trained manager) in my company when I left (we had 57 employees then) and he's doing great. Good luck with your company!

<comment><USER2> The problem with Tingling sensations are that it can occur for any number of reasons, in the order of occurrence - Anxiety, Spinal issues, Issues with the nerves in the hand; unfortunately I had reasons to believe, I had all of them.

Apart from treating spinal stenosis, the tingling sensations were not treated specifically as the none of the tests isolated the reason for it. But, after spine surgery tingling sensations haven't occurred much which seems to suggest whether spinal stenosis was the reason for it.

I will link[1] the article you read just for the context of others. I haven't updated it, since then my neck movements have improved.

As you say, I'm facing severe hand numbness & pain after surgeries. Medical tests didn't help with it. I have isolated the issue to pressure on the nerves in hands while sleeping on that side. I bought wrist splint to avoid flexing my wrists while sleeping & have generally avoided sleeping on that side; it seems to have helped. This physio therapy video[1] talks about the techniques I follow. I hope it helps you too.

I'm glad that you didn't have to close your company, you took correct steps to prevent it. I helped my developers get good offers from other companies and I have closed my company.

[1]: [https://abishekmuthian.com/i-was-told-i-would-become- quadrip...](https://abishekmuthian.com/i-was-told-i-would-become- quadriplegic-68c0371e6f05)

[2]:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRCnRYOupCo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRCnRYOupCo)

<comment><USER4> I have scoliosis and my one hand also sometimes falls asleep when I'm lying on my one side. Good tip on getting a wrist splint, I'll try that out, thanks.

<comment><USER2> No problem, do use tissue between the splint and the skin to ensure it doesn't bite during first few weeks (i.e. like new shoes which doesn't fit perfect).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Sigh. This study is useless.

They have two sources of data, publicly available data (which they say has major censoring problems) and kickstarter projects.

People will incorporate at the point that they believe it is worthwhile to incorporate. This is basically a tautology, but just think about it. When would a solo founder incorporate? When the benefit of incorporation makes it worth the time to do it. This might be when they are taking investment, when they have customers and need to limit their liability, or when they are making profits and want tax benefits. What about pair founders? In many cases on the first day, but often very early on because it is necessary to legally establish their ownership stake in the company. So you are selecting solo founders who have a functioning business and pair founders at every stage. I think most ventures probably fail with zero revenue and virtually zero customers and/or users.

Kickstarter won't be representative of anything, even in their wildest dreams.

</comment><comment><USER6> The effects may be due to irrelevant artifacts:

1.) Pairs or more of people working on a task may declare themselves to be an organization and call themselves founders earlier than an individual. An individual may be more likely to wait until they have a customer, are near profitability, etc to make that declaration.

2.) The summary says that "investors rarely, if ever, fund startups founded by a solo entrepreneur".

So the observations are confounded with solo founders overcoming this prejudice. This quote also points to a survivor bias in play. IE, solo founders must have higher performance than teams before getting funded, and less of the weak solo founders survive to be observed by the study.

I wouldn't be surprised if the article had a correct conclusion. Though it would be very hard to convincingly show causality short of convincing entrepreneurs to take part in a decades long experiment where they are randomly divided into solo founders and teams (which would be nearly impossible to get a representative sample of founders to agree to).

<comment><USER7> Agreed. In fact, I think it's impossible to get useful evidence for any causal relationships between the founding team and success of a company, because there are feedback loops and confounds everywhere.

Here's an example of feedback loops. Suppose investors are biased against young founders. When you look at outcomes, you'll see a higher success rate from the young founders that do get funded because they had a higher bar to overcome the bias. And, of course, investor biases are (mostly) the result of historical outcomes. So eventually investors will become biased in favor of young founders, and the bar for funding will be lower, and you'll have a lower success rate. The system creates a time-delayed (by a decade or so) negative feedback loop that maintains a rough homeostasis of success rate for every kind of company.

Economists realized long ago that you can't predict stock market movements by looking at fundamentals, because all the other investors are looking at the same fundamentals, so the consensus is already priced in. This seems study has the same problem, in addition to a data set several orders of magnitude smaller. Don't change your plan based on any such study.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think that individual founders are more likely to move fast and take more risks. A second founder will be a mitigating factor no matter what. It may mean that individual founders have wider distributions in terms of their potential for success. And we notice mostly the positive tail of the distribution because the negative tail is cut off (once you fail, it is hard to fail more, where as success is nearly unlimited in comparison.)

<comment><USER9> If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> While interesting and worthy of debate, the title makes it feel a lot more general than reality (this is a study of Kickstarter companies, so goes with the huge sample bias of "stuff that gets put on Kickstarter").

As a solo founder, I think people always love the idea but don't acknowledge how lonely it is compared to having at least one other founder (not to mention complementary skills etc).

Most high growth businesses go to zero as time continues, so while there are outliers the majority (in number) case still remains a zero outcome, not more or less revenue (let alone exit $).

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed. I copied a sentence from the abstract and cut it down until it fit the HN character limit. I hope it doesn't come off as too click-baity..

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is mostly limited to Kickstarter, which is not exactly the dataset that I would go looking for if I wanted to make definitive statements about 'organizations' or start-ups in general.

A better description of the findings would be 'kickstarters started by individuals rather than by pairs of people have a higher chance of success, but not much different than from larger teams'.

<comment><USER12> It's even worse than that: this is limited to successful Kickstarters. Turns out individuals who can pull off a solo Kickstarter might be a bit more successful overall.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Startup teams need to earn more revenue to pay for everyone, compared to individuals, and they are probably less willing to live in their cars during any periods of hardship.

</comment><comment><USER14> I've long felt that the "common wisdom" that teams are better is wrong. I can list as many solo-founder companies as I can team-founder companies off the top of my head and even the team companies are usually mostly one person doing more of the work.

Personally I know a lot of very successful solo founders but I can only think of a few team founders that I know. The solo founders all have much stronger willpower than the team founders too.

Just my anecdotal evidence.

</comment><comment><USER15> I've been a single founder since 2005 and I can relate to these findings.

Some parts of my business are on a complete auto-pilot and will continue to function even if I'm not around. The main part of it though, won't. That's the problem I see with my solo ventures.

I'm currently looking to automate what's left of the business processes so that I don't lose the company due to unforeseen circumstances. Not sure if I'll succeed.

</comment><comment><USER16> Having experienced it both ways a few times, I would argue this result is a manifestation of a tradeoff. The best way in any single case is circumstantial but there is a natural selection bias toward different average outcomes.

Having multiple founders creates a drag on execution efficiency because it requires active maintenance of a consistent vision across the founders and diffuses the "moral authority" role that uniquely falls on founders. I've never seen this implicit coordination overhead be trivial at any startup. However, the major upside of having multiple founders is that _learning_ how to effectively execute every aspect of a startup _also_ has an incredibly high overhead that lends itself nicely to divide and conquer. The ability to scale the learning part can offset the overhead of coordinating vision.

Solo founders work best if they are _experienced_ at startup execution. They've already learned how to do it, so there is much less learning to distribute across founders and the clarity of vision streamlines execution. Confidence of the founders in their own abilities plays a role in choosing to be solo.

My general observation is that people who choose to be solo founders tend to have prior experience that gives them confidence in their ability to execute the current startup well, require less learning to be successful, while gaining the execution efficiency that comes with having a Benevolent Dictator. This begets more execution efficiency and fewer mistakes, which increases probability of success. Having multiple founders can make a lot of sense if they have little prior experience i.e. they need to scale _learning_ at the same time they are trying to scale the business.

tl;dr: The structural benefits of solo mostly accrue to founders that also have substantial startup execution experience, and choosing to be solo often reflects confidence in their ability to execute based on prior experience.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is basically a religious argument. Just figure out what works for you and, if a company is something you want to build, go build it.

</comment><comment><USER18> Just from the abstract I can't tell if the study differentiates between sole proprietorship and solo founders. The former is a business built around a person's individual skill set. The latter is built around an idea, a product, or a service that just happened to be started by a single person. The death test can differentiate: a sole proprietorship goes out of business if the founder dies. A company created by a solo entrepreneur will continue to operate and serve customers even if the founder passes away.

Investors may favor partnerships over solo ventures due to the proprietorship effect. A skills-based solo founder is usually too idiomatic to be an investable business. The catch here is when starting out a solo founder must be a sole proprietor; it's his particular skillset and drive that creates the company. The trap is it's natural for the business to evolve and grow around that particular skillset.

</comment><comment><USER19> A lot must depend on the type of business. For example the solo founders could be launching KFC franchises while the teams are trying to reinvent air travel or some such.

</comment><comment><USER20> It seems silly that a technical founder with obvious entrepreneurial verve needs to go out and find some other person, it's not clear whom, to get a fair look.

</comment><comment><USER21> Earning more revenue =/= maximizing company value

The benefit of cofounders has a doing more with fewer resources and having more diversity of opinion (making fewer long-term mistakes).

</comment><comment><USER22> Pretty nice to see actual research on this, especially in the teeth of the selection effects that make it harder for people working on their own to get funding.

</comment><comment><USER23> > A widespread scholarly and popular consensus suggests that new ventures > perform better when launched by teams, rather than individuals. This view > has become so pervasive that many of the foremost investors rarely, if ever, > fund startups founded by a solo entrepreneur. Despite this belief in the > superiority of teams in the startup process, little empirical evidence has > been used to examine this key question.

There's obviously _selection bias_ if only teams get funded. That skews the data that VCs evaluate, because what's _worked_ in the past is colored by what was _funded_ in the past. (Similar to what we see with seemingly ageist or sexist VCs that are simply following a pattern of what has worked.)

So, the reason why little empirical evidence has been used to evaluate these biases is because there's a paucity of data that doesn't already have inherent conflicts.

If we look at the larger software companies, most of them (Gates & Ballmer, Jobs and Woz, Larry Ellison at Oracle, who was the third richest man in the world for a while, Marc Benioff at Salesforce, etc), they were all launched with a single dominant founder who opportunistically attracted people _as they went_. Jobs would have found someone else to do the work he didn't want to do, for example, or he would have figured out how to do it himself. (He did know quite a lot about motherboards and circuits, and definitely enough to see the potential in microcomputing's future, although he lacked Woz's technical genius.)

None of them started out with a plan to build a huge company, although they clearly had a strong desire.

According to _The Facebook Effect_ , Zuckerberg was so unsure about The Facebook that he was working on Wirehog with DeAngelo almost full time even while the Facebook had millions of users.

According to numerous Jobs bios, Woz tried to stay at HP and even offered the Apple I to HP.

According to his autobio _Softwar_ , Oracle founder Ellison just wanted to hire people to do his consulting for him so he could surf more. He had no intention of building a huge company until he realized that he could build software and it would be less work than consulting.

According to _Hard Drive_ , Gates originally flew to Albuquerque to write programs for the Altair, which was the definition of a tiny, niche industry, and Ballmer really was no help at all.

In many cases, the co-founders/teammates may have actually slowed down the dominant founders.

It's pretty clear that Zuckerberg would probably have been successful whether he had access to a team (his dorm room roommates) or not.

So, this idea that teams will automatically and rapidly coalesce around a charismatic founder is another bit of selection bias.

Speaking as a solo founder: the obvious selection bias, and the fact that I was in my late 30's and far from a startup hub where I might find equally qualified co-founders, forced me to launch on my own.

We've now achieved product-market fit and are growing,and I'm now attracting people who want to join my startup. But, _they all want to be paid_. Not in equity. Outside of the valley and startup hubs, people haven't _seen_ that stock can bring huge success, so they want at least meager salaries, but they're still attracted to join a startup that's clearly happening and to work with a founder who is becoming successful. (On the plus side, this means that I retain _control_ and board seats, which are more important to me right now, so sharing profits is just fine with me!)

Any founder who has tasted success _without VC_ will tend to be more wary of accepting VC, especially because one benefit of starting a company and growing it to be successful is that you are succeeding on _your own_ terms, and not because you "pass" some arbitrary checklist set forth by a VC that may have never even been an operator themselves. Why put that much trust in another person if they weren't there for you at the beginning?

So, you could plausibly argue that founders end up engaging in _their own_ selection bias. What's clear is that founders who seek out funding at that stage generally prefer to wait until they can control their own destiny; they don't want to negotiate out a loss of control (over the board, restricted shares, etc) since they didn't start that way. So, any later successful rounds will have to be on the founder's terms:

1\. big enough to be worthwhile

2\. no significant loss of control (unless they're naive, but they're probably not if they got this far)

3\. doesn't involve moving their growing company (and lives) somewhere else.

There's a whole 'nother world there of companies that eschew funding because they started out having to and later realized that they might as well keep going.

The companies grow slower because they don't have those continuous cash infusions.

But, then, _magically, overnight_ they hit the Inc 5000 in some out of the way geographic location, but most VC's will never even know they exist. There's some irony in all of this!</comment>


EasyList: Ad-serving domain removed due to DMCA takedown request - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/easylist/easylist/commit/a4d380ad1a3b33a0fab679a1a8c5a791321622b3 <comment><USER2> Thanks, just added it to my HOSTS file...

I don't know if the Streisand Effect is going to happen with this one, but it seems very odd that the DMCA could even be applicable here.

Edit: [https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq- protect.html#domain](https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq- protect.html#domain)

 _Can I copyright my domain name?

Copyright law does not protect domain names._

<comment><USER3> > _it seems very odd that the DMCA could even be applicable here_

This is an invalid takedown request.

<comment><USER4> Diebold was sued successfully many years ago for DMCA abuse under 512f. See OPG v Diebold. EFF prosecuted and did a great job. Use this precedent!

Disclaimer: I was the plaintiff.

<comment><USER4> EFF detail - [https://www.eff.org/cases/online-policy-group-v- diebold](https://www.eff.org/cases/online-policy-group-v-diebold)

Note that HN has an issue linking to Wikipedia pages ending in a period, so add a '.' after this URL: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Policy_Group_v._Diebold...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Policy_Group_v._Diebold,_Inc).

<comment><USER5> Someone was kind enough to set up a redirect. :)

You can URL-encode the last character to make HN happy, i.e.:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Policy_Group_v._Diebold...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Policy_Group_v._Diebold,_Inc%2e)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Someone needs to inform EFF, this sets an important precedent: Having to alter your software because it references a domain makes it dependent on all data being in line with DMCA requirements interpreted by the copyright holders(that is you can't use your software without complying with terms of domain owner). It transforms control of web experience. Imagine that a domain owner requests you mine some cryptocurrency to load his website and any browser that doesn't send him proof of mining is illegal(in reality this can be done with mandatory JavaScript and cookies checked on server for hash matches) due "access control" portion of DMCA. Most software makers can't afford to ignore DMCA or fight it.

</comment><comment><USER7> IANAL, but I'm guessing the DMCA takedown request cites "circumvention of access control."[1] Would be useful if the maintainer published the request.

1\. [http://blockadblock.com/adblocking/is-adblock-plus- violating...](http://blockadblock.com/adblocking/is-adblock-plus-violating- the-dmca/)

<comment><USER2> That would be a very odd interpretation of that phrase --- because when one usually thinks of "access control" and the DMCA, circumvention is about _allowing_ access to copyrighted work. Adblocking is essentially all about _disallowing_ access.

But if that interpretation does hold up in the courts, it could lead to a very slippery slope where it becomes illegal to refuse to consume specific content. The equivalent of not being able to change the channel on the TV or go do something else when the adverts start, or even... just close one's eyes and ears.

<comment><USER8> Hope you're wrong because this is starting to look like a Black Mirror episode.

<comment><USER9> Fifteen Million Merits (S01E02) to be specific.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Can someone provide some context? How can a line in an adblock list be subject to a DMCA takedown request?

<comment><USER11> Yeah. How did this even happen?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Some people use the term "DMCA" for informal takedown requests. We need to see the actual form or at least get a definitive "yes, it was an actual DMCA" before speculating.

</comment><comment><USER13> Someone already added a pull request to add it back.

[https://github.com/easylist/easylist/pull/500](https://github.com/easylist/easylist/pull/500)

<comment><USER14> Yup ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> For those who don't know what EasyList is:

 _The EasyList filter lists are sets of rules originally designed for Adblock that automatically remove unwanted content from the internet, including annoying adverts, bothersome banners and troublesome tracking._

[https://easylist.to/](https://easylist.to/)

</comment><comment><USER15> I wonder if these were included in the DMCA: unknowntray.com , broadboundary.com , anxiousapples.com , boilingbeetle.com , ... ( [https://www.threatcrowd.org/domain.php?domain=functionalclam...](https://www.threatcrowd.org/domain.php?domain=functionalclam.com) )

There appear to be quite a few of these domains, serving the exact same landing page, with Namecheap whois protection, and hosted on Google Cloud.

<comment><USER15> Other weirdness in the commit log for that event: [https://github.com/easylist/easylist/commit/1ba8d4afeec6d562...](https://github.com/easylist/easylist/commit/1ba8d4afeec6d562a5871fc7504c756e4b2bd5bc#diff-4903e7590de76df1abe1703921a2c88b) .

Not finding much else, except they do appear to be hosting ad-block detectionn ( [https://unknowntray.com/4430b41e83ded20e5f99d3149b838ba9394d...](https://unknowntray.com/4430b41e83ded20e5f99d3149b838ba9394d5a075c316121705ccd1543bc9320fc690f12c8d6e27a206b5ebdc92207d119db270253373b3e5d39c687bcb5) , ref: [https://forum.adguard.com/index.php?threads/resolved- venture...](https://forum.adguard.com/index.php?threads/resolved-venturebeat- com.14601/) ).

Are they DMCAing about blocking ad-blocker-blockers being a tool to "circumvent copyright access controls"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> IANAL: Seems to me like EasyList would have a fair-use defense here, beyond the fact that I'm pretty sure you can't copyright a domain name (trademark is a different story). They created a curated, novel work using the domain, or they are making commentary on the domain like in a news story (the commentary here being that this domain serves ads).

</comment><comment><USER17> Maybe someone should contact EFF to see if this might fit in their wheelhouse.

</comment><comment><USER18> Added: [http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/details.php?hostname=functiona...](http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/details.php?hostname=functionalclam.com)

<comment><USER19> So you just list it because it was on another list, without gathering any proof yourself? What a great list you maintain.

Also slightly disappointing you take PayPal donations, if any party is nasty in the ad industry... it is them.

<comment><USER18> No. I went to the site first, which explicitly states that it's being used as a tracking domain. Then I added it.

<comment><USER20> Could you please elaborate where it mentions that it is used a tracking domain? Because I can read, and I don't read anything like this.

It does mention it records metrics to help understanding and authorising access to their site and copyrighted content. Afaik this is called logging; not tracking.

<comment><USER18> I consider it tracking if a domain is used to log data about users from multiple sites, for a tracking company.

<comment><USER20> Maybe, just a suggestion, also monitor the list of urls you provide. So many are no longer existing... Maybe if you want to provide this service, try to keep a certain quality.

That includes not listing things willy nilly because YOU think there is proper reason. At some point there will be a party that will call your efforts, in case you keep listing things without proof/reason, defamation or libel...

<comment><USER18> I do monitor the list. A script runs weekly that checks the validity of hosts in the list, and removes them after a number of failed checks. You can see failed checks in the details of a specific entry (eg: [https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/details.php?hostname=addealin...](https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/details.php?hostname=addealing.com)).

I don't list things willy nilly. See here for the policy: [https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/policy.php](https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/policy.php).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Ah, the beauty of version control.

</comment><comment> whitexn--g28h A copy of the request would be nice.

</comment><comment><USER22> I wonder if this can be worked around by storing a list of hashed domains to compare to instead?

<comment><USER23> I see no reason why that solution would not work, however, the overhead- looping all domains/elements, hashing them, then doing a key->value lookup- might not be worth the processing power. Good solution and worth looking into though!

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Perhaps it was an automated DMCA complaint triggered by the target hostname appearing on a non-customer site?

</comment><comment><USER25> Wouldn't Privacy Badger block this domain anyway?

</comment><comment><USER26> Can the list be host fully somewhere else?

</comment><comment><USER27> A quick glance at robtex suggests one would probably be safe to block the IP address: 126.96.36.199

Below are some of the other whimsical domains listed as pointing to this address.

Whether we send one of the names below in our Host: header or some randomly chosen name, we still get the same response, devoid of any content, except an <img> tag to track the user.

        1. anxiousapples.com

        2. beamkite.com

        3. calmfoot.com

        4. chickensstation.com

        5. consciouscabbage.com

        6. copycarpenter.com

        7. crownclam.com

        8. functionalclam.com

        9. giddycoat.com

        10. guardedgovernor.com

        11. jewelcheese.com

        12. lizardslaugh.com

        13. loudloss.com

        14. photographpan.com

        15. profitrumour.com

        16. quaintcan.com

        17. scintillatingspace.com

        18. scrubsky.com

        19. shallowschool.com

        20. shelterstraw.com

        21. sinceresofa.com

        22. snakesort.com

        23. storesurprise.com

        24. stormyachiever.com

        25. stormyshock.com

        26. swimslope.com

<comment><USER28> A much longer, more complete list: (formatted weirdly, but probably better than having it take up 115+ lines.)

abandonedclover.com abruptroad.com actuallysheep.com ambitiousagreement.com anxiousapples.com baskettexture.com bawdybeast.com beamincrease.com beamkite.com boilingbeetle.com brassrule.com broadboundary.com calmfoot.com cherrythread.com chiefcurrent.com chinchickens.com commandwalk.com concernrain.com consciouscabbage.com copperchickens.com copycarpenter.com copyrightaccesscontrols.com crawlclocks.com critictruck.com crownclam.com curtaincows.com cutecushion.com decisiveducks.com delightdriving.com differentdesk.com dk4ywix.com docksalmon.com doubtfulrainstorm.com dragzebra.com elasticchange.com elephantqueue.com exclusivebrass.com flavordecision.com floodprincipal.com functionalclam.com futuristicfairies.com fuzzyflavor.com ga87z2o.com giddycoat.com gorgeousground.com greetzebra.com guardedgovernor.com guitarbelieve.com hilariouszinc.com illustriousoatmeal.com incrediblesugar.com ivykiosk.com jewelcheese.com karisimbi.net limpingline.com lizardslaugh.com lopsidedspoon.com loudloss.com lp3tdqle.com lumpyleaf.com matchcows.com mixedreading.com mowfruit.com ovalpigs.com peacepowder.com photographpan.com pietexture.com possibleboats.com practicetoothpaste.com presetrabbits.com profitrumour.com provideplant.com quaintcan.com quicksandear.com readgoldfish.com receptiveink.com rulerabbit.com saysidewalk.com scarcestream.com scrubsky.com scrubswim.com separatesilver.com shakesea.com shakytaste.com shallowschool.com shelterstraw.com shiveringsail.com shockingswing.com simplisticnose.com sinceresofa.com snakesort.com sneaklevel.com sneakystamp.com spectacularsnail.com spillvacation.com squeamishscarecrow.com storesurprise.com stormyachiever.com stormyshock.com stormysponge.com straightnest.com strivesidewalk.com structuresofa.com succeedscene.com superficialsink.com terribleturkey.com thirdrespect.com throattrees.com tidytrail.com tracedesire.com trickycelery.com tritetongue.com unknowntray.com unusualtitle.com voicevegetable.com

<comment><USER18> NB: the following domains aren't currently used:

        karisimbi.net
        shallowschool.com

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> That DMCA request can't be valid.

</comment><comment><USER30> Does not make much sense. Is the website address itself under copyright?

<comment><USER31> >Is the website address itself under copyright?

No. [https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq- protect.html#domain](https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq- protect.html#domain)</comment></comment>


Pourover and Tamper – Client-side superfast collection management from the NYT - <AUTHOR> https://source.opennews.org/en-US/articles/introducing-tamper-and-pourover/ <comment><USER2> Looks pretty feature-full, and I really like the idea of compression / decompression of data for the browser. I don't like how complicated the PourOver API seems to be, but maybe that's just a side-effect of it being so feature-rich.

We open-sourced our client-side datatable, Knockout Datatable. [0] While it definitely doesn't come shipped with as many of the niceties of Pourover, the built-in ':'-delimeted filtering is really handy for quickly providing both searching and a dropdown of pre-built filter choices. Additionally, it uses Knockout.js which, in my opinion, is much easier to extend and use than many other client-side MV* frameworks.

[0] [https://github.com/immense/knockout- datatable](https://github.com/immense/knockout-datatable)

</comment><comment><USER3> This looks really useful. I may take a stab at creating a Node.js encoder later today. If it can integrate nicely with Express and/or Restify and use content negotiation to allow the client to specify when it has support for Tamper then that would be a very useful piece of middleware.

<comment><USER4> I'd be looking forward to that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Because confusing, there's a parallel discussion over here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7603647](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7603647)

</comment><comment><USER6> Loving reading through the source! I stumbled across some ingenious perf optimisations too... looks like duplicated code, but I guess they think it's worth it! [https://github.com/NYTimes/pourover/blob/master/pourover.js#...](https://github.com/NYTimes/pourover/blob/master/pourover.js#L319)

</comment><comment><USER7> If your model is a list of enums where you know all the possible values, you can use SmallHash which encodes to the smallest possible string.

[http://blog.vjeux.com/2009/javascript/smallhash- information-...](http://blog.vjeux.com/2009/javascript/smallhash-information- compression.html)</comment>


Ask IH: How you guys perform cross browser testing of your websites or web apps? - <AUTHOR> https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/ask-ih-how-you-guys-perform-cross-browser-testing-of-your-websites-or-web-apps-d57d6fe99e <comment><USER2> 5 days ago you submitted [https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/what-is-best- cross-browse...](https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/what-is-best-cross- browser-testing-tool-for-online-business-92bb7c7192) ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18038775](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18038775)) which got answered. Isn't this the same question?</comment>


New Digital Healthcare Startup needs your help (please fill in share) - <AUTHOR> https://healthsurvey.typeform.com/to/LwDdKI

<comment><AUTHOR> Offline validation for this one was already done, this is a final online validation push (> 600 people)</comment>


Ask HN: Help finding an iPhone app designer - <AUTHOR>

Hi,
We're looking for a really, really good iPhone app designer who understands how to design natively for the iPhone, interactions and overall experience.  As a boot-strapped startup we have very little money to spend on this so initially we're looking for someone who can consult a few hours here and there to point us in the right direction - more like feedback from a design perspective.
Any ideas where to find someone or if you have any recommendations that would be much appreciated.  Location not too important as we can work remotely - more interested in getting the best person possible.
Any help appreciated - thanks :) <comment><USER2> I have been working on my startup as a UI/UX designer. I would love to help you guys out with it. My email is firstname.lastname@example.com, Twitter; ZeeshanKhan

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Zeeshan - I've e-mailed you.</comment></comment>


How Medium is building a new kind of company with no managers - <AUTHOR> http://firstround.com/article/How-Medium-is-building-a-new-kind-of-company-with-no-managers#

<comment><USER2> It all sounds quite like Wikipedia, which has its official hierarchy of admins, and then its informal hierarchy of admins with clout. Despite its advertised openness ("the encyclopedia anyone can contribute to") a lot of stuff over there runs through back channels; _that is by design_. The project has a reputation of being poorly run.

Run for the hills!</comment>


North Paw: anklet that tells the wearer which way is North - <AUTHOR> http://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/

<comment><USER2> Very cool, doing something like this has been on my list of Arduino projects for a long time.</comment>


Startup bank Mondo raised £1m crowdfunding in 96 seconds - <AUTHOR> https://getmondo.co.uk/blog/2016/03/03/crowdfunded/ <comment><USER2> This is a bit dishonest.

They haven't raised £1m, they've had enough people sign up as "interested to invest" to reach £1m if everyone follows through.

I signed up to invest £1000, but I haven't paid yet and have absolutely no obligation to, and as far as I know I also don't have to invest the full £1000, I just can't exceed that.

edit: Their crowdcube page shows them having £600k so far

<comment><USER3> This is nuts I don't know of another crowd source that raised so much so fast. How did you hear about them to invest, and why did you?

<comment><USER2> I heard about them on Hacker News I think.

I invested mainly because I like the idea of a bank where I can do everything online. There's no reason I should still have to call or go in to a store to change my address/unblock my card (because of their crappy fraud detection) etc

<comment><USER4> > _I invested mainly because I like the idea of a bank where I can do > everything online._

Is this really unavailable in the US? Here in Canada, PC Financial has been operating like that for well over a decade. Sure, they have kiosks in some of their grocery stores for those people who want to talk to somebody (which is genius, really), but it's entirely virtual. I've operated almost exclusively online, outside of lost cards and things of that nature. Ordering cheques, creating new accounts, switching pins, transferring money, it's all a couple of clicks.

> _There 's no reason I should still have to call or go in to a store to > change my address/unblock my card_

So you'd prefer your bank didn't freeze the card based on what they deem to be suspicious activity? Good luck to _those_ banks...

<comment><USER2> > Is this really unavailable in the US?

This is in the UK, and it might be available but certainly not with any of the major banks

> So you'd prefer your bank didn't freeze the card based on what they deem to > be suspicious activity?

They'll still block cards on suspicious activity, but they allow you to manually unblock/block cards using the mobile app, and they can also use your phone location in their algorithms if you open the app while abroad

<comment><USER5> I guess we might disagree on the definition of major bank, but I've had an account with Smile[0], part of the Co-Operative Bank, for over 10 years. It's an Internet only bank, with no physical branches. I've always done everything online. What does Mondo offer that Smile doesn't?

Also, as it is actually part of the Co-Operative bank, on the rare occasions where I've needed to withdraw a large lump sum of cash, I've been able to use those Co-Operative branches (that's happened about three times in 10 years).

I also have a Number26 account,[1] which I only opened a few months ago. Again, I don't see the Mondo advantage. In the Mondo Beta phase customers must be London based and iPhone users. No such Number26 restrictions.

I suppose I just don't understand the Mondo hype. They're good at marketing, but don't seem to offer much that isn't already available elsewhere.

[0] [http://www.smile.co.uk](http://www.smile.co.uk)

[1] [https://number26.eu/](https://number26.eu/)

<comment><USER6> I'm a Mondo user. Things I like about it:

\- no login bullshit (no pinsentry, or being timed out after 5 minutes or whatever)

\- instant card freeze/unfreeze from the app. I don't have to talk to anyone to do it

\- push notifications for every purchase (including full text entries for where the transaction was, and a cute little topical emoji)

\- no hassling with PDFs of my transaction history, there's a god-damned API (and for the average consumer, there's the potential to have a constellation of 3rd party apps to deal with anything on the API). There's also in-app transaction breakdowns (for instance, I can see how much I spend in a particular category, or at a particular place). SHOW ME ANOTHER BANK WITH AN API

\- I always know how much money I have in the account; there's not "available balance/actual balance" bullshit.

Honestly the main thing is that's really easy to use. I'm generally terrible at keeping track of how much money I have (usually because I avoid cash machines (I don't know who's still using cash in London, pretty much everything is contactless) and logging into online banking is a hassle). With Mondo, I can find my balance in one tap.

And yeah, they've earned my loyalty and I invested in them yesterday. Sign up for a card, use it, then criticise it.

<comment><USER7> I'm not sure if any other bank provides their own API for people to hack their own accounts with, but all my high street bank accounts are accessible to an ecosystem of third party apps that do things like transaction breakdowns via Yodlee (an API intermediary)

<comment><USER8> If you ask the bank they'll let you use it. I's still in a sort of beta phase but all UK banks have to have them soon under a HM treasury directive on 'Open Banking'.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Better software can only get you so far in banking. At the end of the day, they need to borrow and loan profitability and provide services at a low cost. In addition, they need customers, which are not easy to acquire for a new bank. Not having physical branches is definitely a cost saver; however, I've seen some surveys that indicate people still want access to some sort of physical branch.

According to their previous Techcrunch article [0], they are writing their own full-stack banking software. Writing your own banking core, external facing software, and internal process software is a massive undertaking, especially dealing with all the regulation and certification processes with third parties. You then become not only a bank but a specialized software development shop as well. Something traditionally only the big banks can afford. I'm not sure, given they are a bank and software business, that their cost base is 1% or 2% of a traditional bank, as stated in their article [0].

I hope they build something awesome but I think to do something of this size will take more than a few million.

Disclaimer: I write banking software.

[0] [http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/30/mondo-gets- passionate/](http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/30/mondo-gets-passionate/)

<comment><USER8> One thing that's quite nice about what they're doing, and rather profitable is the OD system.

With a credit card you have a seperate account, so when you get cash it doesn't have to pay off the card.

With mondo it is a debit card with a current account which can overdraft and interest rates near a credit card (19.9% according to their papers)

This means there's less risk for them and a smaller chance of NPLs as money needs to be paid off to the OD before the account is positive.

While a normal bank can take this view in the aggregate term of a customer's account it encourages the user to engage in more risk taking where the customer can't pay it back.

So you get less risk and the same interest rate.

That being said they do save a lot on software building it in house contrary to hiring someone external to do it for them. If Oracle's standard margin are any indication there's a lot lost this way in terms of cost.

<comment><USER5> > With mondo it is a debit card with a current account which can overdraft and > interest rates near a credit card (19.9% according to their papers)

What's the advantage here? With my Smile account I have a Visa debit card linked to my current account, with an agreed interest free overdraft for a certain amount and then an additional overdraft on which I pay interest.

Why would I switch to Mondo?

<comment><USER8> 1) No fees using the card abroad. Exchange rate 'at cost'.

2) No fees using any ATM to withdraw cash (AKAIK when I asked the Mondo guys)

3) Instant notifications when you make a purchase and the ability to switch on and switch off the card. So you're never blocked when you purchase Christmas presents and weirdly spend more one week.

4) They have a nicer app that helps you track how you're spending and your habits are changing. They've even managed to put in logos for each merchant. I know that's hard because I've done it for my startup -(for example a mom and pop pharmacy)

5) Easy integration into transferwise and other apps where you can get loans from banks in a marketplace so you get the best deal. In general there's a whole lot of benefits to the APIification mondo offers. It avoids doing what everyone does by just sending you off and integrating with others who do something better.. Credit Cards? Loans? FX transfers. While I don't know the details this is what I got from their marketplace vision.

6) Sign up using something like Jumio, or Jumio? (Not sure i don't have Mondo, wish I did- so if you're reading this give it to me!) so it takes 30 seconds and no need to visit a branch.

Ultimately its your choice but they have a pretty cool thing they're building.

I might want to point out I have nothing to do with Mondo. I love their idea but the way you asked that question suggests I may be implying that, but I don't have anything to do with them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This news is important for banking in the UK for the following reasons:

\- UK banks are slow to innovate and people (especially younger generation) are getting annoyed. People want a bank that is digitally strong, Mondo's 30k waiting list proves this.

\- Banks will become more like platforms. Number26's partnership with TransferWise is an example of this beginning. See Clayton Christensen illustrate this [https://youtu.be/oCKZwrfysbM?t=1h19m28s](https://youtu.be/oCKZwrfysbM?t=1h19m28s)

\- The UK is trying to make banking more competitive (last 5 years has had applications for more than 5 new banks, before this there was 1 new bank in 150 years). This policy is working.

What remains to be seen is whether Mondo will make money in the way a traditional bank does.

IMO the biggest challenge for a new banks is customer acquistion, and it looks like Mondo has a pretty good handle on this.

<comment><USER8> > UK banks are slow to innovate

This is hardly true. The UK is one of the only countries which has a couple of simple features in banking no other country has:

\- Instant, Free transfers, including from one bank to another. Even on weekends & holidays.

\- APIs currently available (under the UK open banking government guidelines)

\- Pay to mobile phones (not that cool).

\- Debit via a Debit Card out of the Mastercard network (costs something like 6p per transaction or something, not sure of the details but there's no fixed fee)

There are also a couple of other things like their fraud systems in how you can unblock your card without having to call customer sevice. Granted its an annoying robocall.

Some customers also have authentication by voice from recordings via customer service calls.

All this is in addition to what everyone else has we take for granted: Pinsentry, NFC, Chip and Pin.

The list is quite long, but I hardly think the UK banks aren't innovators. By any measure they're doing a good job.

Also check out Barclay's accelerator where they lend out their banking license to startups.

> What remains to be seen is whether Mondo will make money in the way a > traditional bank does.

If their £1m in debit card spending is anything to go by they already have roughly £15k in the bank from Acq Bank revenue from Mastercard. This is just in alpha in 3 months with 200? users.

<comment><USER10> > I hardly think the UK banks aren't innovators.

I did not say they were not innovative at all. I said they were slow to innovate. This is being proven by the speed at which fintech startups are unbundling banking services into individual products.

Zopa, Nutmeg, Transferwise could have been built by banks. But they were not.

> Instant, Free transfers, including from one bank to another. Even on > weekends & holidays.

\- Paypal in 1999?

> APIs currently available (under the UK open banking government guidelines)

Yodlee supplies APIs already.

> they already have roughly £15k in the bank from Acq Bank revenue from > Mastercard.

Really? Mondo are currently paying for the prepaid cards, and more to load them through the app. This is probably around 2% ? So 20k cost for this? Maybe I am wrong, but I can't see how else the card gets loaded by a free payment.

You are right, the barclays accelerator is great. And similar incubators and schemes are opening up.

I still think it's pretty clear that innovation is coming from the outside.

<comment><USER11> >\- Paypal in 1999?

Whaaa? The paypal-to-paypal part is instant. Getting the money into a US bank account usually is not. It's still the case in the US that there is no easy and reliable way to instantly get money that's in your account to appear in your friend's account. (There are some instant transfer services, but they don't work between any two US bank accounts.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Also, the name on the sample card if you sign up is "Jimmy Fontana".

This guy, famous for singing "Il Mondo": [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SGE8H4R9XA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SGE8H4R9XA)

</comment><comment><USER13> Can someone explain to me an appeal of Mondo as opposed to some other established online banks (like Ally for example) ?

<comment><USER14> To people saying "UK" as a selling point, doesn't ING work in the UK as well? I'm not saying ING is the future of banking by all means, but they're pretty much (totally if you want) office-less.

<comment><USER15> Barclays bought out INGs UK operations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I was ready to go at the time it opened (1 pm), and I actually read a bit of the disclaimer before I put in my information.

At finished at 1:02, and was put on the waiting list. Needless to say I was a bit angry I was less than a minute away.

</comment><comment><USER17> Totally not a pre-organised marketing stunt.

<comment><USER6> So? Good for them for jumping on the opportunity. Heaven forbid a startup try to make a name for itself...

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I should point out that Mondo isn't the only online only bank there's also FFREES and Monese that are already functional.

<comment><USER8> Monese isn't a bank and neither is FFREES (they say so on their website)

> > [https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_firmdetailsPage?id=001b0000...](https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_firmdetailsPage?id=001b000000m4IXjAAM)

Mondo will offer banking services (lending via OD)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> So, I am always surprised by these apps. How do they (or Simple) go and convince Citibank or Bank of America to give them their data? What competitiive pressures would make BoA modernize their UI?

<comment><USER20> They're not - they're convincing Royal Bank of Scotland or Barclays customers to switch to their bank because it has a better UX.

Mondo is in the process of registering as a bank.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I know precious little about the UK banking system. Is there an equivent to the US's FDIC or Canada's CDIC?

<comment><USER22> If you mean deposit safety there is the FSCS which protects account up to £75k (~$100k)</comment></comment>


Show HN: Vestidd - An online organizer for loved ones with special needs - <AUTHOR> http://vestidd.com

<comment><USER2> Interesting, my wife works as a physical therapist with special needs children. I'll have to forward this on to her for some feedback.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great! Tell her to feel free to contact us online if she has any feedback or wants any more information.</comment></comment>


I've redesigned my startup's landing page. What do you think? - <AUTHOR> http://chilledlime.com

<comment><USER2> Criticism is easy and I don't want to rain on your parade. After all, what do I know. Keep doing your thing, don't stop. But here's a few things that came to mind:

The name reminded me of eatlime [http://www.techsnack.net/eatlime-free-online- private-file-sh...](http://www.techsnack.net/eatlime-free-online-private-file- sharing) which now pivoted to twitvid. And the scrolling image snippet looks better here: <http://freshdesk.com/> because of a splash of background color.

The _lime_ part of your logo is too blurry. You can get a better logo font from here: <http://www.myfonts.com/> And I'd make your footnotes lighter grey in smaller print. Also try to do with less text on the invite box. For an example scroll to this order section here: <http://sachagreif.com/ebook/>

More design inspiration here: [http://startupframework.tumblr.com/post/26696517701/design-a...](http://startupframework.tumblr.com/post/26696517701/design- and-copywriting)

All in all, great that you've done a landing page. It's the first step of many, and I'll be looking forward to seeing more. Best wishes!

</comment><comment><USER3> "We are making the site with a useful UI/UX, so that debates and opinions are in the center."

great, I was looking for a place where I can argue on the internet and also had a useful ui/ux.</comment>


Spoofing vulnerability in Google Inbox - <AUTHOR> https://eligrey.com/blog/google-inbox-spoofing-vulnerability/ <comment><USER2> It's crazy how hard it is to fight fishing and spam, if I had programmed that UI I would never have thought of that. Maybe they're waiting for someone to actually exploit it before they make the UI less clean. It could be quite easy to make a special case for "email-like" recipient names, but it could also probably be cheated with some unicode wizardry.</comment>


What are the recommended Programming language to be used for Start Up Project? - <AUTHOR>

Hi!
I just want to know what language is recommended for Start Up project?
I want to create Start Up project someday. I only know PHP. I currently developing a website for my Portfolio and Im using CodeIgniter? Is PHP is ok to use?
I heard Python or Ruby is commonly used language for Start Up.
Guys can someone give me an advice? Thanks.... <comment><USER2> You focus on the problem not the language.

Then when you understand the problem, you pick the language you personally will be most effective using to tackle the problem.

There are no silver bullets. There is no magic language. And PHP can be a good choice for some problems, and can be wielded with finesse.

The programmer is far more important than the language.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Sir. :)</comment></comment>


It's High Time for a European Broadcasting Service - open-source-ux http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/opinion-europe-should-launch-own-public-broadcasting-service-a-1130317.html <comment><AUTHOR> An excellent proposal, but one which should be _exceedingly_ mindful of the failures (and successes) of public broadcasting efforts in the past.

Europe is no stranger to government broadcasting. In Italy and Germany, these spread (and at times retarded) fascism. See "Radio and the Rise of the Nazis in Prewar Germany"" [https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3D...](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/130/4/1885.abstract%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1487107825688000%26amp;usg%3DAFQjCNEa8eJ2N1REJT8Mg4f7l3qTWJbDEg&sa=D&ust=1487107825805000&usg=AFQjCNE_U4x2rzRPws98rHeYjl6vptd8OA)

During and since World War II, broadcasts especially from the BBC, Voice of America, and more recently Deutsche Welle and other national broadcasters, have offered high-quality content, much in multiple languages. These have been national though not European-wide initiatives.

The United States has seen the emergence of public broadcasting, in the form of both PBS (television) and NPR (radio), as well as other public-broadcasting networks (Pacifica, PRX, and several statewide and regional powerhouses). Whilst there've been successes, there have also been failures. American public broadcasting is frequently noted for being higher in quality than most private for-profit networks (true), but also in having a distinctly closed "public broadcasting" mindset (also, in my experience, true), with certain notable voices markedly missing. Having been a viewer and listener for decades, my own satisfaction with the network's merits have fallen greatly in the past two decades.

Ralph Nader has suggested that a new, truly responsive, public media system be created within the US, though he's been rather vague on specifics, or how he'd avoid the pitfalls which have befallen the existing system. (Information via a speech made Fall of 2016, I'd have to look up specfics.) His is among the voices typically missing from public media, with Noam Chomsky among the other notable absences.

Europe also has significant challenges in terms of language and culture -- there's no one language which will be understandable across the entire union. There remains a fairly strong regionalism as well which will have to be addressed.</comment>


The Internet Is Making You Less Free - <AUTHOR> https://areomagazine.com/2019/05/01/the-internet-is-making-you-less-free/ <comment><USER2> Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Unfortunately we have become less vigilant while the tools available to suppress our collective liberty have become vastly more powerful.

<comment><USER3> Eternal vigilance is possible for the unemployed and childless, unfortunately for me I have 15 hours a day devoted to decreased vigilance and the 8 hours devoted to sleeping.

<comment><USER4> Perhaps you should have considered not having a child if you can't give them a free life. Not everyone has to have a child; Everyone has to guard the liberty.

<comment><USER5> Hindsight is 20/20, foresight is murky at best.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Perhaps I agree with this statement, because every day we all spend a lot of time on social networks or various Internet services or even online games like [https://casinority.com/au/](https://casinority.com/au/) or others. I'm going to experiment, if I can stop using the smartphone and the iPad for one month. I really hope that I can do it.

</comment><comment><USER7> The article seems to focus heavily on China and Russia, which makes for kind of an odd notion of exactly who the "you" is in the title. Most of their readership is not in those two countries. (It also seems to have an extremely America-centric view of the state of the Internet in those two countries, which does not strike me as especially well informed. Its view of China's "social credit" system reflects Fox News version of it and has little to do with reality.)

The main argument it makes that actually affects its readers is that the social media giants are cracking down on what they consider antisocial behavior. It doesn't seem possible to me to make you "less free" by banning you from doing something that was impossible before the Internet. Alex Jones may not be able to post to YouTube any more, but he's no less free than he was in 2005.

It's vacuously true that Facebook and YouTube are less "free" than they were before they began the crackdown; it needs no article to tell you that. But the Internet is still "free": Jones is welcome to support his own infrastructure.

As far as I can tell, this is little more than yet another person demanding access to other people's resources. Which strikes me as inconsistent with its obvious conservative, libertarian leanings.

<comment><USER8> The China part of the argument has more merit as they have been exporting the infrastructure supporting their "social credit" system to other nations since the Beijing Olympics in 2008

[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/technology/ecuador- survei...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/technology/ecuador-surveillance- cameras-police-government.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> To quibble with the headline: not so I'd notice, and I think I know my own situation better than some random writer on the Internet.

Appealing to people's self-interest doesn't seem like a great argument. How about talking about how it hurts other people that we want to support?

<comment><USER10> There is no shortage of examples of how powerful platforms and governments are using this technology in a way that reduces personal freedom. Surveillance is the name of the game in our current era of internet business models. Are you suggesting that this isn't the case?

<comment><USER9> To put it another way, it's odd that the "you" in the headline promises to talk about the average reader's situation but then they talk about what's happening in China.

<comment><AUTHOR> China and Russia are given as worst case examples. Halfway through the article: "Observed in isolation, the authoritarian measures taken in China and Russia don't immediately indicate an existential risk to freedom elsewhere." The author gradually redirects their attention to Western nations.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Zen and the Art of Divebombing (2016) - <AUTHOR> http://www.friesian.com/divebomb.htm <comment><USER2> i thought i'd learn something reading this, i did, but thank u for wasting my time.

basically, the 'west' is pissed off that Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Confucianism none of these originated west of Greece. it suffers from a sort of not invented here syndrome. so its got to be bad right?

Silent teaching being the pinnacle of attainment of these isms could only lend kamikaze pilots the moral ammunition to bomb pearl harbor yet the rational and enlightened west is justified in returning the favor with hiroshima and nagasaki that somehow isnt atrocious and doesnt blemish either on reason or aristotle, the granddaddy of them all.

no other nation other than Japan would have forgiven USA for the bombs. every other nation would have prepared themselves to take revenge. care to spend a second to think that this could be because of the same 'fatalist' buddhism/zen? to be honest this happened once b4 in the opposite with emperor ashoka on the battlefield of kalinga when he saw all those soldiers dead and their loved ones grieving, proceeded to take yes buddhism and dismantle his empire -- why didnt USA do what ashoka did after hiroshima and nagasaki? -- man of reason until then. losing your reason and tapping into the 'It' inside you thru introspection is the point of these isms.

now how can the tao/zen/buddhist masters take moral responsibility for the suicidal japanese military as much as aristotle take moral responsibility for the atom bomb?

no, no, lets throw the baby out with the bathwater. we have these weapons to test on real people. lets reason the pros and cons and still go ahead and drop them on their 'zenglightened' heads, that will teach them reason....that it was better to kill them so others could live.

</comment><comment><USER3> I was really hoping this was going to be an article about the guitar technique:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dive_bomb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dive_bomb)

</comment><comment><USER4> This was an amazing synthesis.

</comment><comment><USER5> There is something basically confused about this article. To consider one passage:

 _The brutality of the Japanese military, which was visited upon its own people as well as on prisoners and civilians, itself has antecedents in Zen. It has already been noted that the "silent teaching" may actually be expressed by beatings, and that the Zen meditation hall is a place where someone sitting zazen can be struck and beaten just to keep them awake. And we have the following story:_

 _Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger._

 _Gutei heard about the boy 's mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened. [Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, pp.169-170]_

 _We may stipulate that enlightenment is well worth a finger, and that Gutei was a great enough Zen master to know that so bloody and permanent an expedient would be effective -- and it is a nice thought that the boy has "no finger" to raise up. But for ordinary fallible humans, this would be an appalling act of brutality and child abuse, and it can be expected to be little else if emulated in any way by subsequent teachers. Just as disturbing is the circumstance that, although the names in the story are in Japanese, it is actually a Chinese story, from Tao-yüan's collection. This makes for a very dangerous precedent once it gets into a tradition, the Japanese one, where positive reasons to value violence, for its art, arise._

(1) The author writes "...the names in the story are in Japanese...", but this is a totally absurd statement. The whole story was written in Buddhist Chinese, and was brought over to Japan that way, and read in Buddhist Chinese in Japan. When the translator of the story _into English_ chose to transliterate the names with Japanese pronunciations, it was just an arbitrary choice; they could just as well have transliterated them with Chinese pronunciations. (Then we would have to ask, which ones? Chinese pronunciation has changed greatly in the last 800 years.)

(2) The author writes of this story that "...it can be expected to be little else if emulated in any way by subsequent teachers." but they present no evidence to show that this ever actually occurred. To the best of my knowledge, Zen priests and monks did not cut off novice's fingers.

(3) The presence of one story like this -- or even a hundred -- in the folklore of Buddhism offers _no support at all_ for the idea that Buddhism in Japan or China offers some unique spur to warfare. There are many more such cruel folk stories in the non-Buddhist folklore of these countries. This leads to an important area of omission for the other: syncretism. Unlike in the West, exclusive adherence to one religion was never the norm in East Asia, where most people participated in rites and practices derived from the native folk religion -- Shinto in Japan -- as well as Buddhism.

For many hundreds of years, Buddhist sects in Japan administered the Shinto shrines as well as the Buddhist temples, and Buddhist temples today still celebrate Shinto holidays, like 7-5-3.

It is entirely unlikely that Chinese Buddhism was the inspiration for the reverent character of obedience in Japan. Long before Buddhism, Japan settled into a certain kind of stable relationship with authority. Despite all the turmoil and internal warfare, the emperor was never overthrown and the imperial family today is the same family that was the imperial family 2500 years ago (long before Buddhism entered the country). Such continuity is reflective of certain deliberate choices, and reverence for authority is one of them.

One difficulty that faces Western people in considering Zen in Japan, is a tendency to attribute to Buddhism in Japan a level of power and authority that it never had, in analogy with the Catholic Church. The author makes this mistake.

<comment><USER6> The core argument of the article is not that Buddhism was either a unique spur to warfare or the specific source of obedience.

The article is about how Zen has at various historical moments, despite core anti-violence Buddhist beliefs, been used to justify and excuse violent acts, or even be directly referenced in learning martial killing arts. Then the question is: How has a deeply anti-violence religion found pro-war or pro- violence logic when in those contexts. The author looks for explanations of this contradiction in the Taoist elements of Zen.

The article references [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War), it is factual that (some) Zen leaders supported the imperial holy war in WWII. Enough that some contemporary leaders have issued apologies.

I think the question is more similar to: Christianity has explicitly stated principles of non-violence and against killing, yet has also been used at historical moments to justify holy war, during WWII did not prevent (some) German churches from aligning with Nazism and violent anti-Semitism, etc. What are the historical philosophical strands in Christianity that have allowed it (sometimes) to be used to justify acts that would seem to be in direct contradiction to its core.

<comment><USER5> _The core argument of the article is not that Buddhism was either a unique spur to warfare or the specific source of obedience._

It _does_ try to argue that, over and over.

 _The article is about how Zen has at various historical moments, despite core anti-violence Buddhist beliefs, been used to justify and excuse violent acts, or even be directly referenced in learning martial killing arts. Then the question is: How has a deeply anti-violence religion found pro-war or pro- violence logic when in those contexts. The author looks for explanations of this contradiction in the Taoist elements of Zen._

Buddhism is not a deeply anti-violence religion -- that is a complete misrepresentation on the part of the author. The reason is, yes, to be found in the Taoist elements -- in that, the author is correct.

 _I think the question is more similar to: Christianity has explicitly stated principles of non-violence and against killing, yet has also been used at historical moments to justify holy war, during WWII did not prevent (some) German churches from aligning with Nazism and violent anti-Semitism, etc. What are the historical philosophical strands in Christianity that have allowed it (sometimes) to be used to justify acts that would seem to be in direct contradiction to its core._

This is a great parallel -- it is a similar argument. It is similarly misguided. No religion that is non-violent would have survived for very long; but neither would a religion have survived for very long if it was much inclined to violence. From a marketing standpoint, the non-violent parts sell better, so people talk about those. The violent parts are kept closer to the chest. Sometimes they get out of hand.

If we accept for the sake of argument that a religion offers a perfect and complete teaching, it doesn't mean people can't mishandle it from time to time. A religion and its handling are indissoluble. Sometimes, this aggregate is in the wrong. We should try to learn from this and do better, which is to say: we should add to the historical strands, not subtract from them. This is the essence of religion.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Hack your tastebuds to make eating healthy easy - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@dg3tman/hack-your-tastebuds-to-make-eating-healthy-easy-b905187bb3e9 <comment><AUTHOR> TLDR: I think I have a simple, natural, and cost-effective solution to create lasting behavioral change towards a healthier future. I'm looking into ways to test that hypothesis and use my time productively in spite of Coronavirus. Cold calling dietitians and pediatricians sucks (but what can you do?). Can anyone make some suggestions for ways to efficiently test PMF while we still have no clue how long Coronavirus will last?</comment>


Ask HN: Starting a startup on an F1 visa - <AUTHOR>

I'm a student on an F1 visa in the Unites States.
I'm considering starting a startup (as the sole founder) and/or becoming an independent contractor. But F1 visa holders are prohibited from working anywhere in the United States except for an internship or on an on-campus job.
I was considering forming a corporation and getting paid through dividends, but my international student advisor just told me that any form of work, even unpaid internships are illegal for F1 students and could result in deportation and a 10-year ban on reentry.
So is there any legal way in which I can start a startup or become an independent contractor? If any of you know lawyers or website where I can look for legal concerning this matter, please point me to them. I'm currently located in NYC.
Thank you. <comment><USER2> IANAL, nor am I an expert in this area, but I'm also an international student and have been thinking about these kinds of things.

While still a student, options for working are pretty limited. You could apply for what USICE calls "Curricular Practical Training" (CPT) or "Optional Practical Training" (OPT) -- you can read more here <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optional_Practical_Training> or on the USICE website. Success of this route all depends on the approval of your Designated School Official and compliance with the details of the law.

Further complicating matters (even if you consider applying for an H-1B after you're done) is the issue of control of employment. Lawyers I've talked to suggest that the immigration officers look to see that you don't have control over your own employment. While this isn't a problem when you work for a big company, it's definitely a problem if you're a sole founder/self-employed. I guess if you take this literally, then you can legally own at most 50%-1 shares of the company you work for.

In the end, this is all about convincing your school officials and/or US immigration officers that you meet the letter and the spirit of the law. Sadly, good immigration lawyers are probably the best equipped to help you make the case for yourself. I agree that this isn't an ideal state of affairs, which has prompted efforts such as <http://startupvisa.com/>.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm on an F1 visa and have been working as the sole founder of my startup since May. You have to apply for OPT and choose the "self-employed business owner" option.

The biggest problem is that OPT is valid for one year, plus 17 months if you're coming from a technical (STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degree. So you have about 2.5 years to do something so big that you can transition to something else (EB-5, startup visa?).

Feel free to ask me more, I did lots of research in this area before quitting my job and starting to work full-time for my own business.

<comment><USER4> I hope you don't mind me asking some.

Can you employ others too?

Have you researched fundings and VCs and what they think of F1 visas?

Did you start while you were at school?

Have you heard of any success stories?

What is your backup plan? Have you thought of what you'll do if it doesn't work out? When do you think you will bail out ?

<comment><USER3> 1) Yes, of course. 2) No, but my guess is that if you have a good product, the immigration status is less important. 3) Yes. 4) I will probably go back to my home country and continue working there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Please check DHS's website. You can always work UNPAID. You can not accept any sort of compensation on F1 visa if you dont have approval from DHS.

I was myself on F1 and I know many students working unpaid for experience.

<comment><USER6> But, isn't this kind of unpaid internship illegal for everybody? ([http://laborlaw.typepad.com/labor_and_employment_law_/2007/1...](http://laborlaw.typepad.com/labor_and_employment_law_/2007/11/unpaid- internsh.html)). though, of course, starting your own startup isn't exactly an unpaid internship. I'm sure the dividend payment bit would complicate things.</comment></comment>


Doom as a tool for system administration (1999) - <AUTHOR> https://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/flake/doom/ <comment><USER2> Hah, I remember this. My favorite thing about it is the fact that vital processes could end up killing each other and crash your system.

To me, that takes this from stupid, to gloriously stupid.

</comment><comment><USER3> So wonderful - includes features that sound eminently sensible yet are not present (I imagine) in any modern tools:

> A new sysadmin can be given less power by providing her with a smaller > weapon. A rank beginner may not be given a weapon at all and be forced to > attack processes with her bare hands. It would take a foolhardy player to > attack a room full of monsters, just as a newbie should not kill a bunch of > important processes. A more experienced sysadmin would have time to stop a > newbie who is trying to kill the wrong process. The real work could be left > to those with the big guns. The truly great sysadmins could have BFGs.

</comment><comment><USER4> Ha, I'm old. I remember seeing this when it originally showed up on shashdot.

<comment><USER5> Same here. It was the dawn of the dial-up age, and we were loading funky IPX device drivers and stringing coax to play this between apartments...

<comment><USER6> Small nitpick: this was not the dawn of the dial-up age. This was the end of 1999. I had been dialing up for at least 5 years at this point and I'm sure there where many who had it before me.

<comment><USER7> I'm a child of the early eighties. I cannot recall a time that there was not a functioning 1200 baud (or faster) modem in our house.

<comment><USER8> Must have been nice. In '82 I got a third-party 600 baud (nonstandard, can't recall the brand) modem which was better than 300 and Atari hadn't come out with a 1200 yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Certain processes are vital to the computer's operation and should not be > killed. For example, after I took the screenshot of myself being attacked by > csh, csh was shot by friendly fire from behind, possibly by tcsh or xv, and > my session was abruptly terminated.

My favourite part

</comment><comment> irq-1 From the same person: Adaptive Radio

[https://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/radio/index.html](https://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/radio/index.html)

> It can be hard to listen to music in the office. ... Adaptive Radio is an > alternative approach in which users just indicate what songs they _don 't_ > want to listen to, and the system will try to play MP3s that are not > disliked by anyone.

<comment><USER10> Such a cool idea in principle... I would be the party pooper who blacklists everything though. I just can't concentrate with music playing, which is kind of funny, because construction noice, for example, does not nearly distract me as much.

<comment><USER11> I bet you would like techno: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMIvj7Zxogs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMIvj7Zxogs)

Or maybe chillhop: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Y8JkHcI3I&index=1&list=PLR...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Y8JkHcI3I&index=1&list=PLRnzGbivJUmGbB- iS_GkA33QcIed7Sv_I&t=0s)

Give each of those 5 minutes, you may be able to settle into a nice coding groove. I sleep like a baby to the 1st one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> subsequent art:

\- Dockercraft: [https://github.com/docker/dockercraft](https://github.com/docker/dockercraft)

\- Kubecraft (K8s), a fork of Dockercraft: [https://github.com/stevesloka/kubecraft](https://github.com/stevesloka/kubecraft)

\- Docker DOOM: [https://gideonred.com/dockerdoom/](https://gideonred.com/dockerdoom/)

<comment><USER13> I wonder if there are more such things. Not necessarily for controlling, I can think of a couple games that would be a great fit for just visualizing stuff. Trains for I/o, you can vary number of trains, train length and speed to represent parameters of the io pattern.

<comment><USER14> Check out Logstalgia: [http://logstalgia.io/](http://logstalgia.io/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is refreshingly hilarious. I must admit, using a sawed-off shotgun for resource management even merely inside a single process already holds a massive amount of attraction for me. With my track record in C and assembly, I would be licensed to the most devastating weaponry. So many IT roles underestimate the importance of good entertainment.

</comment><comment><USER16> Once again, whimsy turns to wisdom when least expected. The very idea is ludicrous, but the hurdles and lessons learned while trying to be funny are real. Good read!

</comment><comment><USER17> Early Gamification.

Similar solutions were also mentioned in "Ready Player One".

I'd love to see more applications of this applied to the more tedious and boring aspects of system administration.

<comment><USER18> Bubblefishymon. Not a game, but it gives funny but very functional visual appearance to system/memory load, which helps a lot to get the system status. I think discovered it in the late 90s or early 2k as a couple Windowmaker dockapps which later merged into a single one which was also ported to Gkrellm, and still use it under Xfce. [http://pigeond.net/bfm/](http://pigeond.net/bfm/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Ahhh ... the good old days before money got in the way

</comment><comment><USER20> I was pondering flow charts as a superior way to visualize a programs uhh flow (compared to text)

Then it struck me that humans have amazing spatial memory. The hypothesis is this: A 3d representation (if done right) should make familiarizing the human with some code a process of minutes rather than hours or days.

</comment><comment><USER21> The PsDoom version that is linked to on the page doesn't work.

Here's an actively maintained fork: [https://github.com/orsonteodoro/psdoom- ng1](https://github.com/orsonteodoro/psdoom-ng1)

</comment><comment><USER22> Many previous discussions: [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Doom%20as%20a%20tool%20for%20s...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Doom%20as%20a%20tool%20for%20system%20administration&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

</comment><comment><USER23> And these days "we" manage containers in Minecraft...

</comment><comment><USER24> Awesome! I Love it</comment>


Why now Google? - <AUTHOR> http://scobleizer.com/2010/01/12/why-now-google/

<comment><USER2> _Why now Google? (scobleizer.com)_

Would the extra comma have cost him $2 million?

</comment><comment><USER3> Perhaps Google finally came to the conclusion that the Chinese government has its thumb on the scales. It doesn't matter how much potential the Chinese market has, if only Chinese companies are going to be allowed to succeed.

The hacking probably isn't significant in itself, except to demonstrate that Google is only permitted to operate in China to facilitate industrial espionage.

It's an open question whether any foreign companies can succeed in China over the long run. It will not be long before Chinese companies have absorbed their technology and skills, and no longer need them.

</comment><comment> brown9-2 He might have many points that I agree with (the past doesn't matter, etc.) but it's SO HARD to take someone seriously when they CAPITIALIZE words in sentences to EMPHASIZE them.

<comment><USER4> Also confusing "then" and "than". Not to mention the general abuse of commas.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hmm,

Did he ever imagine that rigged markets, corruption, nepotism and repression might go together?

Obvious, China had become a market that Google finally decided wasn't worth all these costs (moral, financial, security).

But was it hypocrisy to leave in a fashion that was far more courageous than virtualy other major corporation?</comment>


The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - full story of a 1720s startup - <AUTHOR> http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Fra2Aut.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1 <comment><USER2> Project Gutenberg version with illustrations:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20203/20203-h/20203-h.htm

</comment><comment><USER3> This is one of my favorite books. I've read it several times.

<comment><USER4> This book and "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" by Baltasar Gracian (http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/aww/) are my two favorite books I've read repeatedly for over 20 years. It sounds very cheesy, but they are both like a road map for my life. Everyone knows about "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" but few have heard of Gracian. Paul, based on your essays that I've read, I think you would enjoy reading Gracian.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I remember reading this in high school, for a book report. It is a great source of inspiration. I'm glad it's now online. Thomas Edison is also one of the historical figures I admire most. (An online biography here: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=217855 or here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/820/820-h/820-h.htm)

</comment><comment><USER6> Thanks, I had never read this or known of its existence but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's fascinating to read about pre-corporate capitalism.</comment>


Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 Wuhan-Hu-1, complete genome - <AUTHOR> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN908947.3 <comment><USER2> Once one is there, it's easy to see that there are also many other sequencings in the database, isolated on different locations. E.g.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MT370930](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MT370930)

"collection_date="2020-03-22""

"Submitted (22-APR-2020) Center for Research on Influenza Pathogenesis (CRIP), New York, NY 10029-6574, USA"

</comment><comment><USER3> One question (If someone please can explain me) : if coronavirus is an RNA virus, why in the genome at end we can see "t" (timina, I don't know the name in english sorry!) and not "u" (uracile)?

<comment><USER2> [https://bioinformatics.stackexchange.com/questions/11353/why...](https://bioinformatics.stackexchange.com/questions/11353/why- does-the-fasta-sequence-for-coronavirus-look-like-dna-not-rna)

"Virtually all sequencing of RNA viruses is done through cDNA"

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Could someone post some helpful references on how the data is structured?

<comment><USER5> Going off the links at the top, it's Genbank[1] or FASTA[2] (although the stuff on the FASTA version doesn't really match the example on the FASTA explanation.)

[1] [http://scikit- bio.org/docs/0.5.2/generated/skbio.io.format.g...](http://scikit- bio.org/docs/0.5.2/generated/skbio.io.format.genbank.html)

[2] [https://zhanglab.ccmb.med.umich.edu/FASTA/](https://zhanglab.ccmb.med.umich.edu/FASTA/)</comment></comment>